1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio controlled toy blimp and to a method for constructing a remote-controlled toy blimp for amusement purposes having circuitry capable of firing and detecting infrared light beams bearing specific codes. Two or more such toy blimps can then be used to stage a simulated battle for entertainment purposes. Several weapons are available to each toy pilot. A xe2x80x9clight artilleryxe2x80x9d simulates a machine gun which inflicts minor damage to a toy blimp, requiring a high number of hits to disable the opponent""s toy. A xe2x80x9cheavy artilleryxe2x80x9d simulates a large caliber cannon which inflicts heavier damage than light artillery, requiring less hits to disable the opponent""s toy blimp. An xe2x80x9cexplosive missilexe2x80x9d is the most damaging weapon requiring only a single hit to disable the opponent""s toy. A red lamp in the opponent""s toy will flash when a successful xe2x80x9chitxe2x80x9d is made.
When the required number of hits to disable the opponent""s toy is reached, the opponent""s toy will automatically engage in an xe2x80x9cout of controlxe2x80x9d maneuver, such as erratic motion to simulate a disabled vehicle. Also, the red lamp will flash continuously for a pre-set time to indicate that the toy has been mortally wounded. In another aspect of this invention, an infrared wall target is provided for shooting practice.
Each toy""s gun can be set to transmit a different ID code so that the strikes of each player can be identified.
An additional aspect of the present invention relating to a toy blimp, employs a single printed wired board to serve, in an unconventional manner, as the structural beams supporting all three flight motors while at the same time providing the conventional interconnections between all the electrical circuitry, significantly reducing the time and cost required to assemble a blimp.
Also, relating to a toy blimp, a further aspect of the present invention provides for a xe2x80x9cdocking stationxe2x80x9d used for rearming and refueling the blimp. This docking station can be rendered out of order by the opponent""s infrared weapons. Therefore, each pilot in addition to defending his/her blimp, must also defend his/her docking station to ensure rearming and refueling capabilities.
A final aspect of the present invention provides for a mechanism for reducing the angle of the transmitted infrared beam in order to increase the level of difficulty required for hitting the target.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of new, state-of-the-art toy blimps have been developed for amusement purposes. These lighter-than-air blimps are filled with lighter-than-air gases, such as helium. Typically, a gondola is attached to the bottom, with reversible motor driven propellers whose thrust can be directed down for climbing or up for descending. By engaging one motor forward and the other in reverse, the blimp can rotate 360xc2x0 or turn left or right.
A search of the prior art brought to light the following US patents which disclose devices in the same general field of the present invention but without the unique and novel advantages of the present invention:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,028: TOY BLIMP. This document discloses a toy blimp having at least one engine, and preferably two, mounted on the top side of an inflatable helium balloon-blimp like member, and an infrared control circuit and power supply mounted on the bottom side. A remote control transmitter with push buttons transmits an infrared control signal to a receiver in the balloon for horizontal and vertical flight control exclusively. This prior art device doesn""t offer any capability for remotely controlled infrared weapons.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,240: TOY BLIMP. This document discloses a toy blimp, including a gas filled body, a plurality of fins, a wind-up propulsion system consisting of a rubber band or a spring loaded motor, and small weight clips for buoyancy control. This prior art device doesn""t offer any capability for remotely controlled infrared weapons.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,029: REMOTE CONTROL LIGHTER-THAN-AIR TOY. This document describes a remotely controlled lighter-than-air toy having an inflatable container shaped as dirigible for holding lighter-than-air gas. A removable gondola is attached to the underside of the dirigible. This gondola has a first electric motor coupled, by means of gears, to a shaft passing through the gondola. A second and third reversible motors are mounted on each end of this shaft, on either side of the gondola. These second and third reversible motors drive propellers used provide forward and reverse thrust, thus providing horizontal flight control. The first reversible motor is used adjust the position of the shaft relative to the horizontal plane, thus providing vertical flight control. All three motors are remotely controlled by a conventional radio transmitter known to the art. This prior art device does not offer any capability for remotely controlled infrared weapons.
The present invention relates to a remote-controlled air, land and/or water borne toy vehicles. For illustrations purposes only, a lighter-than-air toy blimp is used as an example to describe the teachings of this invention. The blimp includes conventional radio frequency remote control means known to the art for controlling vertical and horizontal flight patterns. A gondola is attached to the underside of the toy blimp which secures three reversible electric motors each having a propeller attached to its output shaft. Two of these motors are placed at each side of the gondola on a horizontal plane and are used to provide forward and reverse thrust. Also, steering is provided by placing one motor in reverse and the other in forward, or alternatively, turning off one motor while the other motor continues to run. The third motor is placed in the vertical plane under the gondola so that downward thrust of the motor pushes the blimp up or upward thrust pulls the blimp down.
One unique aspect of this invention is the addition of innovative remote control means for firing infrared weapons to enhance the amusement capability of prior-art toy blimps beyond a simple remote controlled flight or free flight. These infrared digital signals contain a series of ones and zeros representing a specific binary code defining (a) the type of weapon fired, such as a machine gun, high caliber cannon or an explosive missile and (b) the ID of the blimp firing the weapon. Each blimp has at least one infrared transmitter and at least one infrared receiver. The transmitter is used by the attacking blimp to shoot infrared signals and the receiver is used by the blimp under attack to detect and decode those infrared signals striking the blimp. The attacking pilot must first arm the weapon of choice by selecting between machine gun, cannon or explosive missile in the remote control unit. Then when the attacking blimp is properly aimed at opponent""s blimp or wall target, the user presses the trigger button in the remote control unit to shot the armed weapon. These different weapons operate as follows.
Machine gun: Inflicts minor damage to the opponent""s blimp. A high number of hits are required to shot down an opponent. A high quantity of ammunition is provided during arming prior to a xe2x80x9cdog fight.xe2x80x9d However, since this is a rapid firing weapon, the trigger must be used judiciously to avoid prematurely running out of ammunition.
Cannon: Inflicts heavy damage to the stricken blimp. A lower number of hits are required to shot down the opponent""s blimp. A low quantity of cannon rounds are available, therefore good aim is important.
Explosive Missiles: A single hit causes the immediate shot down of the opponent""s blimp. Each blimp is loaded with only three missiles. As a defensive measure, the pilot of the blimp under attack may temporarily activate a xe2x80x9cradar shieldxe2x80x9d in order to become invisible to the incoming missile. However, the xe2x80x9cradar shieldxe2x80x9d is only active for a short time after which a xe2x80x9cwait timexe2x80x9d must be observed prior to reactivation. This may allow the attacking missile to slip through and hit the opponent""s blimp if the missile is fired within the inactive window of the xe2x80x9cradar shieldxe2x80x9d. On the other hand, if a missile is fired when the xe2x80x9cradar shieldxe2x80x9d is active, the attacking missile will miss the target and the attacker would have wasted one out of the three missiles available. The xe2x80x9cradar shieldxe2x80x9d does not offer protection against machine gun or cannon shots.
Reloading: After all ammunition are fired, full reloading of all weapons systems may be accomplished by landing the blimp at the xe2x80x9cdocking station.xe2x80x9d Proper landing is confirmed by alignment between the electrical contacts at the bottom of the gondola and the corresponding contacts at the docking station. Once proper landing is confirmed, rearming commences and a preset waiting time must be observed for full reaming to take place. This may allow your opponent to shoot your blimp while it is rearming and/or refueling. If the full rearming time is not observed, partial rearming will occur and the next dog fight will be happen with a shortage of ammunition. When a blimp is finally shot down, the stricken blimp is forced into a xe2x80x9csimulated crash maneuverxe2x80x9d such as a fast descent. Additionally, a red lamp at the blimp will flash continuously to indicate a shot down situation.
In another aspect of this invention, one or more blimps can be used to simultaneously attack a wall target. The wall target decodes the binary code identifying the attacking blimp and the weapon type reaching the wall target, then it updates the score displayed for the appropriate blimp. One point is scored for each machine gun hit, five points for each cannon hit and twenty points for each missile hit.
In an additional aspect of this invention, each blimp is initially provided with a limited amount of time (fuel) used to power the blimp""s motors. The blimp""s microprocessor keeps track of the amount of time each motor is used. When the total allocated time is consumed, a yellow lamp under the gondola begins to flash continuously, indicating to its pilot that the blimp only has one more minute of motor power before it runs out of fuel. Then the blimp""s pilot must land the blimp his/her xe2x80x9cdocking stationxe2x80x9d to refuel and rearm the blimp before it runs out of fuel. However, the opponent can destroy your docking station by shooting infrared weapons to it. Upon the number of hits reaching a preset number, a solenoid in the docking station is energized, causing the landing platform to collapse, thus preventing it""s used for refueling or rearming.
In a final aspect of this invention, the angle of the infrared beam transmitted used to simulate a weapon firing, can be adjusted by means of a tube having a reflective inner surface which is attached in front of the infrared transmitting diode. Tubes of different lengths can used to obtain different beam angles.
The toy vehicle that is the subject of the invention can also be referred to as a xe2x80x9cplayer toy vehiclexe2x80x9d to distinguish it from the opponents toy vehicle.